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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations June 29-30, 2002:


Houdini's latest trick.


The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.


The famed stage magician will appear on a postage stamp this Wednesday at
the convention in New York of the Society of American Magicians. The
ceremony will include present-day illusionist David Copperfield and
Houdini's niece.


But some Wisconsin fans wanted the ceremony there, in Appleton, which houses
the Houdini Historical Center. It's where the young Erich Weiss and his
family moved after arriving in the United States, and where he spent his
boyhood.


Appleton won't get to do the honors, but it IS getting to launch another new
stamp, at the end of the month -- the 83-cent Edna Ferber. The Pulitzer
Prize-winning author spent HER childhood in Appleton, too, and used it as
the setting for some of her early stories.


There's a connection between the two children of Appleton: Ferber's first
writing job was for the local newspaper, its first woman reporter, and one
day she encountered Harry Houdini in a drugstore there, and interviewed him
for the paper.


And that's stamp collecting this week. 


I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 


More on Edna and Harry: http://www.apl.org/history/ferber/edna&harry.html



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